Queen's Lane Coffee House

Excellent Turkish coffee with Turkish delight. The place is always bustling, but we were able to get a table within two minutes of arriving. Beautiful views from the windows. It was nice and warm inside. Super helpful staff . Be ready to tell them how sweet you would like your Turkish coffee because they prepare it in the back. We asked for just a little sweet and it was perfect. Thank goodness they also brought us some water

It’s the oldest running coffee shop in Europe , established in 1652. The ambience is quite old school and located closed to the centre. The staff is courteous and the vibe laid back. Their Turkish coffee (served with bite sized lokum) is quite good. The honeycomb cheesecake is also quite good. The Bailey’s latte is also a must try.

Their claim to be the oldest coffee shop in Europe, established in 1654. Awesome restaurant, with a big menu range, great cakes and great smoothies, staff are attentive and friendly, prices are a bit high but worth it in my opinion.

We went in at 5:50pm and the kitchen closed at 6:30pm. But the staffs were so kind and treated us so kindly until we left. They even helped take our pictures and moved the tables and chairs just for the picture 🥹. Love love the place. The fish and chips were so good. The turkish coffee was so good.

Very nice service. Our friends wanted to sit nearby the window to take pictures and selfie, the staff was so friendly to help us get the best views. We think the coffee has reasonable prices and good quality.👍 Besides, the staff can even speak some Chinese 🤣 that’s beyond my expectations!!!

We specifically visited this cafe as it is the oldest coffee house in Europe, the place was buzzing. we were lucky to get table for two but lot more people who arrived a bit later were not that lucky. I ordered tea and a chocolate cake. It was delicious, loved the presentation , my partner ordered full day English breakfast and he liked it as well , service was good too. I highly recommend this cafe if you in or around Oxford

Had the best ever banana and chocolate loaf from this iconic cafe! Great variety of snacks and drinks!

Be wary of the final bill, especially for cakes which don’t have prices. We somehow paid over £20 for a tea, coffee, one slice of cake and a scone. Helpful service though to provide a high chair.

Well, there is always going to be a debate as to who has the oldest thing, and that is definitely the case when it comes to coffee house. In fact, this coffee house, and the one across the road, are not only claiming to be the oldest in Oxford, or even in England, but pretty much the world. Well, I grabbed a coffee from here, and yeah, it wasn't. It was just on a stinking hot day, these buildings really aren't all that fun.

This cafe is so cozy and has a very friendly atmosphere! My friend took me here to seek shelter from the rain and grab a warm bite to eat. We had just passed vaults and garden but kept walking since their prices were sky high! Luckily, he brought me here and I have to say I plan on frequenting this cafe quite often! It's on high street near Magdalen, so very close to the library! I ordered a mozzarella, tomato, and basil panini which cost an affordable £5.95 compared to some other cafes charging £12+ (yikes!) it came out super warm, oozing melted cheese, with a side of salad and crisps. It was the perfect quick bite while it lightly rained outside. Love the cafe, highly recommend.

They have a Perfect dark hot chocolate! Good service and good ambience with nice music.

Cozy. Friendly. Sophisticated. The little coffee house offers respite from a long walk through campus. There is a gorgeous view and plenty on the menu too. Is there anything better that a hot pot of tea and scones on a cold day? Perfection.

I've been to Queens Lane Coffee House a few times now, and I can safely say that I'll be back to visit time and time again. I love the coffee, the food, and the pastries they serve there! The waitstaff is always polite and courteous, and they always serve you with a smile. Its appearance is cosy and comfortable, and I quite enjoy getting some work done there (though sometimes it can be difficult to find plugs). Additionally, their prices are very reasonable, and you can always find deals. Huge fan of Queens Lane, and will definitely be back.

In need of some afternoon tea while walking around Oxford, the Queens Lane Coffee House caught our eye. Touting itself as the "longest established coffee house- since 1654" we walked in and found a table in the adjacent room. My friend & I split the pot of tea for two that comes with 4 tea biscuits. Another friend ordered the caramel coffee which she enjoyed. The tea was served very very hot and the biscuits were somehow both dense & flaky with raisins folded in; and served with jam & clotted cream. The gentleman who helped us seemed to be the owner or manager- he was very friendly & helpful, even letting us come back later when in the day when we were in need of a restroom. TQL has a pretty wide assortment of menu items - the cakes in the window were almost too pretty to eat & the smoothies listed sounded delicious! Definitely recommend if you're in Oxford.

Friendly service and delicious (gluten-free) scones in a centuries-old location. Excellent choice for breakfast and tea. I imagine it also offers other fine meal options but have not yet checked it out. My wife and I will definitely be back.

Conveniently located, and fantastic grab and go options. Not well setup in terms of the order and checkout area. The toasted ciabatta options are very nice (not outstanding flavour, but a nice hot and filling lunch option). The dark hot chocolate is not worth it. While the chocolate cake is quite good. Do not worry if there is no space to sit down. Instead, get your order for takeaway and walk a little bit farther to the Radcliffe Camera and enjoy your lunch on the picnic benches.

Had a simple full English breakfast with some juice and a cappuccino. All pretty good and cheap. The food is OK, but what really makes this place for me is the Wi-Fi. It's fast, it's free, and it doesn't required you to jump through hoops, or give away your first born to use it. No captive web portal to go through - just click and go!

I liked my chai latte here and the Turkish breakfast was pretty good too - it's nice to have some healthy salad (cucumber and tomato) to start your day, even if you are eating fried sucuk at the same time... The menu is a bit confusing re which meals hashbrowns come with and the server told us the wrong thing - basically it's with the first few dishes not the ones underneath. You only get one anyway so don't sweat it. I wouldn't rush back but it's a decent option and it's cool to be somewhere with such a history, even if that is not very discernable from the interior.

Lovely little cafe in the heart of Oxford city centre. Rather large so good for slightly bigger groups. They have a decent sized menu filled with sandwiches, cakes, hot drinks etc at what you'd expect for city centre prices. I opted for the cheesecake and although good to the taste you could tell it had been standing out for over a day so this was quite a let down. Alex had a cream tea and absolutely loved he it! Warm on arrival and served with plenty of jam and cream. I also tried the ice cream which was nice but nothing special. This was a good staple cafe but I'd definitely try another before coming back.

We had a nice cream tea for two. They offer comfy seats and lovely people watching through the windows. Prices are average for High street however the scones weren't the most fresh.

This place is great, don't know how else to say it. Though I can't speak on its legitimacy as the oldest coffeehouse in Europe (I don't doubt it), I will say that it's delicious and fairly priced. Ambiance is good and very relaxed. I've gotten some of the wraps and coffee here and their delicious. I tried to be a little more experimental with the grill options and was equally satisfied. Service can be a little slow when it's busy, but that's to be expected. All in all, highly recommend.

There's something rather nice about having a coffee in Europe's oldest coffee house. Right on the High Street, it's a real oldy worldy place. Does a wide range of food too. We turned up on a cold, wet, winter morning and relished the hot coffee and cooked full English breakfast. Table service and served quickly.

Nice spot for a casual meal and a coffee... It has a lot of history and you can see it in the setting and the inside of the restaurant. Tried the omelette over chips, and it was a large affair of at least 3 eggs and many chips to accopmany it. The avocado came on the side as the insides of the omelette are reserved for protein (ham etc)... Still very tasty. Coffee was strong and the chickpeas as a side were phenomenal. Fresh, crunchy and in just the right amount of tomato! I did go back and tried the curry chicken melt, a variant of the tuna melt - not necessary, as the cheese drowned out the deliciously simple but tasty curry. Nice easy going service and casual dining. Good for a visit or many more.

The menu selection and quality at QL cafe are well worth the visit. I've had the Chicken Burger and Curry Wrap. If you're from the States, you can compare the experience to a diner with a mix of Mediterranean subtleties. The service is either hit or miss. We had a lovely young waitress, but also a very young server who was very shy. Entrees are mostly under £11, but be prepared for a noisy experience. Tables are too close together...

Good cafe for gluten free! I had a really good panini and could have had cake as well. Their online menu doesn't list their gluten free options but once you're inside the menu lists them. There's at least 5 things to try. The baguette for the panini was really nice. I also had an iced chai latte that was delicious.

Mom and I had a great lunch after a long and incredible tour around Oxford. The Caesar Salad was meaty and delicious. I highly recommend and I support this as the oldest coffeehouse in England, not the one across the street

Very dissapointing. Came in to get dessert. Ordered water and they brought me a bottle and tried to charge and gave me a strange look when I said I didn't want to pay for water and had them take it away. Then I order baklava with ice cream and 5 minutes later he says they don't have it but doesn't bring the menu back. We had limited time so I just asked for the ice cream- big mistake. 2 bites of flavorless vanilla ice cream (literally just tasted like milk) with a tiny dot of whipped cream and 2 blueberries. 3 pieces of baklava with one scoop of ice cream would have been 3.95 yet I had to pay 2.95 for ONE tiny scoop?? Rip off!! Such underwhelming flavor and incompetent staff. Bummer!!

I'm having a Bailey's Latte with Bake potato with vegetarian chilli and cheese in one of England's oldest coffee house.

The best of the best. So old and beautiful and full of different delicious choices. Definitely have to visit again before leaving Oxford!

A cozy place with a really nice baileys latte and cream cheese bagel. My friend ordered the jumbo breakfast and the portion is really big it is enough for you to skip lunch.

Good food, for the most part. I've eaten here twice. The first time was alright enough: I had a Full English breakfast, which was good. However, the waitress seemed to be in a bit of a foul mood. The second time I ordered a pastry, yet when I received it, I discovered a hair. I know mistakes like this happen, and they were very accommodating (gave me a new one free of charge), but it made me question how sanitary the place actually is.

I'd cycled past this so many times and always thought it was really traditional and therefore overpriced and touristy. When I finally went in I was pleasantly surprised. First things first: it's not hugely traditional. If you want proper, old-fashioned English afternoon tea with scones and sarnies, try the Grand Cafe across the road. However, for a pleasant cafe with a good selection of cakes, this does the job. The tables are really small so good luck fitting everything on! There's also not much room for big groups, so it's more a place for intimate conversation or to go on your own. There's a magazine rack, although most magazines seem to be aimed at men, which is a bit annoying. The food and drink costs as much as you would expect it to. My partner had a cream tea which was about £3.50. The scones had no fruit in, which I think is great as I don't like it, but he was disappointed. The portions of jam and cream are also quite small, but there aren't many places doing cream tea in Oxford, so it might be the best you can get. I had a fruit smoothie which was really good - very fruity, ice cold and really tasty. Mind you, so it should be at nearly £3. I was torn between the excellent selection of cakes, but there's a counter where you can look at them all, so I eventually chose the hot fudge brownie, which was delicious. The bill was under £10 - quite a lot for afternoon tea, but we stayed in there a long time and weren't rushed, and I was certainly full when I left!

I was very disappointed in the food here. I ordered the Full English breakfast, and was served a gigantic place filled with beans. The juice from the beans was essentially a soup in which my toast, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, and potatoes were swimming. Quite disappointing. Nothing about the breakfast was redeemable. I then ordered a special hot chocolate, with banana and whipped cream, and was disappointed. It was very bitter and the whipped cream was fairly unpleasant. Overall, it was a very disappointing experience. Especially considering the quality of other brunch/breakfast/tea/coffee options in Oxford, I won't be coming back here.

The Queen's Lane Coffee House claims to be the oldest coffee house in Europe. I'm not sure that the building that houses it can be that old, but perhaps there has been a coffee house on the premises for longer than the building has been standing. While I can heartily recommend their excellent scrambled egg on toast, the menu is somewhat overpriced considering that it is pretty standard sandwich/tea shop fare (£4.50 for a fairly ordinary ciabatta is pushing it a bit). You do get table service, but it can be a little sporadic at busy times of day, and although the waiting staff are friendly and helpful, errors in orders are more frequent than they should be. It is very touristy and tends to be packed all day at weekends and lunchtimes throughout the week. Oh, also, despite what the menu may tell you, they do take credit cards, so don't do what I did and walk half way up the High Street to get some cash, only to return and see someone paying with a card. I guess it's a good spot for a cream tea, but there are quieter and more interesting places in Oxford to have lunch.

They claim to be the first coffee house in Britain but their coffee tastes like garbage water. I only come here when I have an extreme need for caffeine and I'm waiting for a bus at the queens lane stop. Pastries are basically just Tesco pastries. I haven't ever ordered lunch but it doesn't look great, and considering it's other qualifications I probably wouldn't try.

This place is quite nice, but I do think that it's a bit overrated. The coffee is fairly good and the sandwiches are great. However, I find that it's always very busy in here and there's not a great deal of room. It's also quite expensive - it claims to be the oldest coffee shop in Oxford and I think the first in the UK, but so does the Grand Cafe across the road! Beware of this if you're a tourist - there are better places to have lunch, don't be fooled by its claims. A bit expensive for students too. The service is quite efficient but I always find it a little snooty. A nice place to take your family if they're keen to see Oxford as you can walk down the High Street and see a good handful of the colleges.

I give this place 4 stars for dessert, 2 stars for food and service. It was busy when we went so that is likely the reason for most of the problems (and why I'm giving it 3 stars instead of 2). My wife had a panini which was decent, I ordered the beef moussaka but was brought the wrong dish, which happened to be horrible! I should have complained and sent the food back, but we were in a hurry and no one came back to our area for a bit due to how busy they were so I just tried to eat what I was given. We tried some baked desserts on the way out however and they were quite good.

Good location, and the young lady serving was very pleaaant, but poached eggs were dry, cooked right trough the yolk (and even burst on contact!). Also dismayed by a 50p charge for card payments under £7.50.

If I could give zero or even negative, it would be more appropriate. If you ever want to experience an attack from a manager of this place, you are welcome to stop by! I have stopped at this place with my two kids and friends to have a quick lunch. Being a foreigner and a guest in Oxford I didn't know the strict rules about 'take-out' items you purchase, which you suppose not to eat inside the cafe. Hello, we do not have this in Canada, please write in big red letter right before the entrance to your cafe! My kids had full 'eat-in' lunch and I took a 'take-out' wrap as I didn't want chips and salad served on a side for an eat-in item. I had to patiently sit and wait till my kids almost finished their lunch when I opened my wrap for a quick bite. Out of nowhere a woman manager jumped on me and in a very authoritative teacher-like voice told me if I had not heard that it was not allowed to eat the 'take-out' items inside the cafe. She was talking to me as to a misbehaving kid right in front of my kids and friends that I needed to pay now an extra pound for having a bite inside her cafe. SERIOUSLY? Are you so apprehensive and 'customer friendly' that you do not have a shame to really jump on a visitor who doesn't have a clue about your strict rules? And is it worth of one pound to create a scene and spoil the rest of my day? YOU ARE A SHAME to any possible customer-service ventures! I would pay you five pounds if you are so desperate to avoid your unfriendly face! I had to throw my wrap outside as I had a smack of the day. Never in my life, even if I am dying of hunger I would step in this place! Beware!

Recently moved to the Oxford area, so trying some of the many eating places in the town. Been to Queens Lane Coffee House several times now. Always pleased with service, quality of food and prices. Generally in company with my 21yr old daughter and friends of her age. Popular with students and tourists and diners of all ages. Most recenyly, Sunday 27th July 2014 - tea time - milkshake float, Victorian lemonade, enormous slice of carrot cake, baklava and ice cream.... all for under £15. Good value.

allegedly, the queens lane coffee house is the oldest coffee shop in europe. i was going to knock it for its terrible service AND its absurdly high prices but now that a 5 GBP breakfast is about 6 USD, i'm going to say the prices are pretty reasonable. if you're looking for some fancy high tea, head to the grand cafe across the road, but if you feel like getting a solid english breakfast (which is slightly less greasy than the neighbouring st. giles cafe) and shooting the shit with your friends for a couple hours, it'll take the eastern european waitresses about that long to get you your bill, so queens lane is your place. ::sigh:: i could really go for a legit cumberland sausage right now.

Love this place, always stopped by in the mornings since it's right around the corner from New College where I stayed. Wouldn't say it's pricey by any stretch compared to some other places in Oxford .Can't say anything about lunch there but I've always enjoyed my breakfast..I don't need fireworks with my food so I was happy...but like the other review said..service is ridiculously slow so makes for a good place to hang out and kill some time for whatever reason.

Totally solid for breakfast or lunch - loooved the vegetarian breakfast (but I'm a sucker for baked beans) and my mom said the mushy peas brought her back to her childhood in Ireland. Mellow atmosphere, slow service, and the wait staff has to buzz you into the bathroom which is a bit strange.

I went in there on 5 February 2016 to order a panini. As things transpired, I ended up with merely a warm baguette, but we'll get onto that later. I was pleased with the filling options available (I got chicken, hummus, cheddar and spinach) but not with how these options ramped up the price and I ended up paying £4.95 - that's expensive no matter who you are and where you're from. I then watched as the waiter put the admittedly well-stuffed baguette in the panini press, and as more time passed (I ended up waiting a good five minutes) I anticipated a panini with properly melted cheese and thoroughly cooked, piping hot chicken - after all, chicken not heated to at least 75°C can make one ill. The bread was not toasted. The cheese was not melted. The chicken was not piping hot. The spinach and hummus were fine. It was not a panini as we all commonly understand a panini to be. It was not worth any money at all, let alone £4.95. I can't be the first person for whom this has been the case, and a I fear I won't be the last - what kind of place thinks it can get away with blatantly short-changing people in such a way? Some people might say "it's only an independent cafes, lay off them" or "it's only a panini, there are more important problems in the world", and I can understand these sentiments. But firstly, I want this place and all other independent cafes like it to survive, and to justify their existence they have to serve better food. Taking a lazy approach to food preparation is a sure-fire way to ruination. And secondly, this is just one instance of a place taking its customers for granted, thinking it can serve up any old trash and that we'll pay them over the odds and thank them for parting us from our money. This is an important point. We, not only as paying customers but also as human beings, deserve respect. If someone doesn't respect you enough to properly prepare the food for which you have paid, why should they respect you in any other way?

oxford is known for its quaint coffee shops but to be honest your more likely to find starbucks and costa than original shops. this place is a real gem, it serves REAL fresh food and monster sized jacket potatoes, good for vegetarians but can get very busy so be warned